Talk:Infront Sports & Media/draft

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Infront Sports & Media is a sports marketing company based in Zug, Switzerland. The company handles the media and marketing rights for international sports events and federations and also provides sports services - such as advertising, sponsorship and hospitality.

History
Infront was created from the purchase of the former KirchSport AG by the late Robert-Louis Dreyfus on 31 October 2002. It was officially incorporated in 2003. The company originated from a merger of two existing Swiss-based marketing companies, CWL and Prisma Sports & Media. Infront's origins are in the football business but in 2005 the company lost a majority of its FIFA business and subsequently diversified. Today the company is divided into Summer and Winter sports properties in line with the Olympic differentiation. Until 2011 it was owned by a consortium of shareholders, including significant majority shareholder Jacobs Holding AG. In September 2011 – European private equity firm Bridgepoint reached an agreement to acquire the company.

Services
Infront Sports & Media supports sports rights holders with global media rights distribution, marketing concepts and sponsorship sales for sporting events as well as media production (host broadcasting, post production and archive management). The subsidiary Host Broadcast Services has produced the television and radio signals for the FIFA World Cup since 2002 amongst other international events. Infront also provides hospitality and catering, stadium advertising, event management and other related services.

Infront Sports & Media consists of subsidiaries specialising in different geographic regions (e.g. China, Germany, Italy) as well as services (e.g. Infront Hospitality Management and Football Media Services).

Notable projects
Infront is often associated for its work in Winter sport, the company represents six of the seven Olympic winter sport federations at international level, including the IIHF for ice hockey and the IBU for biathlon. It also manages media and/or marketing rights to most of the FIS World Cup events. In summer sport, Infront has recently diversified into mass participation and endurance sports – including Ironman events and the UCI World Championships in cycling. It is also a partner for the EHF EURO in handball and the CEV European Championships in Volleyball. In China, Infront represents the CBA League and the national team, Team China Basketball.

In football, Infront has supported the FIFA World Cup for many years and today distributes the Asian media rights and manages the host broadcast production. This became controversial as the President and CEO of Infront Sports & Media Philippe Blatter is the nephew of FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Besides its partnerships with FIFA and UEFA, it works with the German Football Association (DFB) and the Italian Lega Serie A. Fourteen clubs in Germany and Italy are also part of the portfolio, including AC Milan and FC Schalke 04.